Getty Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The doubters are already lining up for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2024.
FanDuel recently set the over/under win total for the Buccaneers at 7.5 wins for the 2024 regular season on April 2. That would be a big step back from Tampa Bay going 9-8 in 2023 and winning a third consecutive NFC South division title.
That win total was set with Tampa Bay returning almost its entire roster from 2023. ESPN’s Mike Clay pointed out that the Buccaneers have exceeded their preseason win projection each of the last four seasons.
“So let Joe get this straight, despite what our friends in the desert believe, the Bucs have gone ‘over’ in four of the past five seasons,” wrote JoeBucsFan.com on April 3. “You’d think someone would wise up, eh?”
Oddsmakers Have Clear Favorite in NFC South
A closer look at FanDuel’s predicted over/under totals for 2024 establishes a clear favorite in the NFC South — the Atlanta Falcons.
FanDuel set the Falcons over/under at 9.5 wins, thanks in large part to a major upgrade at quarterback. Atlanta signed Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins to a whopping, 4-year, $180 million contract on March 13.
Cousins, 35, is coming off a torn Achilles tendon suffered in Week 8 of the 2023 season.
“I’m optimistic that I can be full speed at practice before we break for the summer — and that’s kind of the goal I’ve set for myself — but we do have a long runway,” Cousins said at his introductory press conference. “What I’ve been told, going back to when I first injured it, was that you don’t rush it, you let time do its thing, and it’s going to take time to fully heal that tissue. But as a competitor, you want to get back as fast as you can. Certainly, I’m trying to do that.”
The New Orleans Saints, who also went 9-8 in 2023, saw their over/under total identical to the Buccaneers at 7.5 wins. The NFC South’s other team, the Carolina Panthers, had their over/under set at 5.5 wins, which would represent a vast improvement after going 2-15 in 2023.
Buccaneers Bring Back Almost Entire Roster
The Buccaneers having a losing record seems a tad far-flung with their best players coming back in 2024 on new contracts, including Pro Bowl quarterback Baker Mayfield (3 years, $100 million) and record-setting wide receiver Mike Evans (2 years, $52 million).
The Buccaneers are also the only NFC team to qualify for the playoffs the last four seasons.
Those who might bet against Tampa Bay might point to recent history as the reason why. The Buccaneers have only had back-to-back winning seasons once in the last 15 years, going 11-5 in 2020 and 13-4 in 2021.
The 2010s, however, weren’t kind to Tampa Bay fans and is referred to as “The Lost Decade” or “The Decade of Decay” — the Buccaneers only had two winning seasons from 2010 to 2019.
“Some Bucs fans are bickering over a quarterback who brought the Bucs to the brink of the NFC title game last season,” wrote JoeBucsFan.com on Feb. 15. “We should instead be thanking our lucky stars for Baker Mayfield’s success, and Tom Brady’s success before him. Because not that long ago, Bucs fans weren’t arguing about playoff games, they were arguing about the draft every year, too often by Halloween.